Former president Trump’s lead over Florida governor Ron DeSantis in a hypothetical head-to-head match-up has shrunk by ten points in the last two weeks, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.
News of Trump’s indictment by a Manhattan grand jury previously turbocharged his standing in the 2024 GOP primary, with Trump leading DeSantis by 26 percentage points just two weeks ago among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
But a new poll conducted between April 14 and April 17, found Trump leading DeSantis 52 percent to 36 percent, or 16 percentage points. While DeSantis has not formally jumped into the race, he is widely seen as Trump’s most formidable 2024 opponent.
Still, Trump’s lead remains twice as large as it was in polling by Yahoo News and YouGov in late February and mid March. In early February, DeSantis even sat ahead of Trump, 45 percent to 41 percent.
When placed up against the entire GOP primary field however,Trump now notches 49 percent support — just weeks after sitting in the majority with 52 percent.
Forty-nine percent of Republican voters said they would prefer Trump to “someone else” as the party’s nominee. Thirty-nine percent said they would prefer someone else, while another 12 percent said they were unsure.
Two weeks ago, 42 percent of Americans approved of Trump “being indicted for falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to a porn star.” Now, that number is 47 percent. Disapproval of the indictment fell two points to 37 percent. A majority of registered voters believe Trump committed a crime in the hush-money case, while 34 percent say he did not.
The poll comes as Team Trump has leaned into the indictment, going so far as to sell T-shirts featuring an artificially created mugshot of the former president above the phrase, “NOT GUILTY.”
Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records after an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office into a hush-money payment made to porn actress Stormy Daniels. When he surrendered to authorities in New York earlier this month, he was fingerprinted but did not have a mugshot taken, leaving the campaign to create its own.
The campaign claims to have raked in more than $15 million since news of the indictment broke late last month.
Trump returned to Mar-a-Lago after surrendering to authorities and gave a speech about his legal woes. During the address, a sign on the former president’s podium asked viewers to text a number that would direct them to a campaign-fundraising page. “As the never-ending witch hunts heat up, please make a contribution to defend our movement and SAVE America,” the page read.